The original name of this theatre was the Ronile, the name of the owner’s daughter spelled backwards. Then it was changed to the Knox Street Theatre – it was never just the Knox, so the title of this page needs to be amended to include “Street.”
Hi, Chuck – we are having quite a time on our Movie Theatre Lovers group on Facebook trying to find out how we can get copies of “The Book!” Scroll down to the first Randy Carlisle post in the link below, and please join us!
I just reset the google maps street view to what I believe is the building that once housed the old White Theatre. There is not consensus, however, as notlesu68 has brought up a couple of good points, namely the proximity of the White to the Colonial (1702 Forest Avenue/MLK) as well as to the Forest Theatre (1900 block). His point about the Colonial is in a comment he posted on my flickr site, which I will reproduce below.
My response to the White being close to the Forest is simply that the Forest, being built by Interstate in 1947 with a seating capacity of 1400, replaced both the White (880, though I’m not at all sure the building at 1628 had that capacity) and the Colonial (475) – if the two older Interstate theatres were still in operation when the Forest opened, it’s certain they didn’t last much past that date, certainly not into the 1952-53 era (DMN archives should bear this out) – the whole neighborhood south of the 1800 block was changing fast by the late 1940’s, and even the beautiful Forest would not last long.
Here the link to my flickr page showing another view of 1628 MLK, with notlesu’s comment and my response. From these, you can draw your own conclusions:
This drive-in opened in 1954 as the White Rock Drive-In; name changed to Casa View in 1961. An educated guess would be that, by the late 50’s, the neighborhood & shopping center that grew up around St. Pius X Parish (est. 1954) had taken on an identity quite separate and apart from the general White Rock area.
Seating capacity needs to be corrected from 478 (ridiculously low for a late 1940’s neighborhood house in Dallas) to the 1480 figure quoted in the July 4, 1949 boxoffice 1949 magazine article recently posted by Tinseltoes.
The last time I remember visiting this drive-in was in 1970, to see a double feature of “Giant” (which had just had a national reissue in badly faded WarnerColor prints) and “Return of the Seven.” Long night.
Well, we can add a seating capacity of 884 at it’s opening in 1969, courtesy of Tinseltoes' Boxoffice article link. Thanks for posting, I had not seen the auditorium since the late 70’s.
hispeed, don’t give up! STICK AROUND! LOL! Truthfully, there may be no pix of the HiWay extant except, possibly, in some collection physically at or near Kingsville (I’m thinking Kingsville Record archives, or possibly some collection based at Texas A&M Kingsville). There was a commercial photographer in Kingsville named Jimmie Dodd whom my family knew well and who donated his collection of large-format B&W plates, negatives, and prints to the University of Texas at Austin (the Jimmy Dodd Collection – here is the URL: http://www.cah.utexas.edu/exhibits/dodd/biography.html). He has some good images of Kingsville’s two major walk-ins, the Texas and the Rialto, so he may also have taken pix of tHe drive-ins. Haven’t had time to visit the collection physically.
As Yakima1 stated, the HiWay opened in 1948 and closed in 1952, so Sam’s intro data stating it opened in the late 50’s and closed in the early 60’s needs to be corrected.
Also, the photo is an aerial of the Rancho, NOT the HiWay.
It’s too bad that very nice old marquee ca’t be used because of the tree blocking any view of it; I’m just betting that, in Austin, you’d have a hard time getting a permit to cut the tree.
The last ad I can find for the Capitan in the Dallas Morning News archives is for Saturday, January 1, 1955; a double feature, “Betrayed” with Clark Gable and Lana Turner, and “Rancho Notorious” with Marlene Dietrich. No article announces the closing. The ads simply disappear after this date.
BTW, Interstate did NOT open the Capitol, as it says in the introductory remarks, above; although, IIRC, the company did acquire it and the adjacent Rialto (Old Mill) at some time in the lives of these respective theatres.
$50,000 doesn’t sound like a whole lot, esp.compared to the $2,000,000 price tags for the Majestic and Palace, both built the previous year – even considering they were each about 2-3 times the seating capacity.
After carefully studying the Historical Aerials overhead shots from 1957 and 1958, noticing particularly the configuration of the screen tower and its positioning on the property, its “wings” (adjacent fences meant to shield patrons' eyes from ambient light) and the location of the boxoffice, I have concluded that the photo I posted of this theatre…ain’t it.
What theatre the one in the photo might be, I have no idea.
Address is still wrong – Apollo’s south screen stood very close to where the single screen tower of the old Garland Rd. Drive-In stood – the address for that theatre (3159 Garland Rd. – at the southern apex of the triangle formed by Garland, Shiloh, and W. Kingsley) is correct; the Apollo’s north screen was way up on Kingsley.
“Chuck 1231 confirms Bob’s statement that this was originally the East Pike (see Casa View Drive-In page), so there needs to be an AKA added above the title, don’t you think?” – I have now found evidence that refutes this claim, namely an announcement in a 1950 Dallas newspaper (link posted below). Samuell Blvd. itself was at one time referred to as the East Pike because it was the old route of US Hwy 67 into Dallas from the east. It’s possible Chuck’s source confuses the theatre with the road. Here’s the link. Scroll about a third of the way down the page until you see an article headlined “New Drive-In To Open Tuesday.”
Since this theatre closed as the Fine Arts (name changed from Varsity about 1957), it should really be listed as Fine Arts, with Varsity as an aka.
Chuck, I sure don’t. Sorry.
The original name of this theatre was the Ronile, the name of the owner’s daughter spelled backwards. Then it was changed to the Knox Street Theatre – it was never just the Knox, so the title of this page needs to be amended to include “Street.”
Hi, Chuck – we are having quite a time on our Movie Theatre Lovers group on Facebook trying to find out how we can get copies of “The Book!” Scroll down to the first Randy Carlisle post in the link below, and please join us!
https://www.facebook.com/groups/MovieTheatreLovers/
Nice shot, Randy – why don’t you post it to this page under “PHOTOS.”
I just reset the google maps street view to what I believe is the building that once housed the old White Theatre. There is not consensus, however, as notlesu68 has brought up a couple of good points, namely the proximity of the White to the Colonial (1702 Forest Avenue/MLK) as well as to the Forest Theatre (1900 block). His point about the Colonial is in a comment he posted on my flickr site, which I will reproduce below.
My response to the White being close to the Forest is simply that the Forest, being built by Interstate in 1947 with a seating capacity of 1400, replaced both the White (880, though I’m not at all sure the building at 1628 had that capacity) and the Colonial (475) – if the two older Interstate theatres were still in operation when the Forest opened, it’s certain they didn’t last much past that date, certainly not into the 1952-53 era (DMN archives should bear this out) – the whole neighborhood south of the 1800 block was changing fast by the late 1940’s, and even the beautiful Forest would not last long.
Here the link to my flickr page showing another view of 1628 MLK, with notlesu’s comment and my response. From these, you can draw your own conclusions:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/66262530@N08/6027614302/in/photostream
BTW, I truly appreciate such engaging opposing views as notlesu66’s and the thought they provoke.
from GoogleMaps street view (closest view I can get that still maintains a sense for where it sits on the street).
This theatre had a run of 30+ years…not too shabby when you think about it.
This drive-in opened in 1954 as the White Rock Drive-In; name changed to Casa View in 1961. An educated guess would be that, by the late 50’s, the neighborhood & shopping center that grew up around St. Pius X Parish (est. 1954) had taken on an identity quite separate and apart from the general White Rock area.
Seating capacity needs to be corrected from 478 (ridiculously low for a late 1940’s neighborhood house in Dallas) to the 1480 figure quoted in the July 4, 1949 boxoffice 1949 magazine article recently posted by Tinseltoes.
The last time I remember visiting this drive-in was in 1970, to see a double feature of “Giant” (which had just had a national reissue in badly faded WarnerColor prints) and “Return of the Seven.” Long night.
Well, we can add a seating capacity of 884 at it’s opening in 1969, courtesy of Tinseltoes' Boxoffice article link. Thanks for posting, I had not seen the auditorium since the late 70’s.
What a beautiful theatre!
What is the name of the theatre under whose marquee canopy raybradley’s second photo of the Maynard is taken from?
hispeed, don’t give up! STICK AROUND! LOL! Truthfully, there may be no pix of the HiWay extant except, possibly, in some collection physically at or near Kingsville (I’m thinking Kingsville Record archives, or possibly some collection based at Texas A&M Kingsville). There was a commercial photographer in Kingsville named Jimmie Dodd whom my family knew well and who donated his collection of large-format B&W plates, negatives, and prints to the University of Texas at Austin (the Jimmy Dodd Collection – here is the URL: http://www.cah.utexas.edu/exhibits/dodd/biography.html). He has some good images of Kingsville’s two major walk-ins, the Texas and the Rialto, so he may also have taken pix of tHe drive-ins. Haven’t had time to visit the collection physically.
hispeed, the new pic is the King’s!
As Yakima1 stated, the HiWay opened in 1948 and closed in 1952, so Sam’s intro data stating it opened in the late 50’s and closed in the early 60’s needs to be corrected. Also, the photo is an aerial of the Rancho, NOT the HiWay.
It’s too bad that very nice old marquee ca’t be used because of the tree blocking any view of it; I’m just betting that, in Austin, you’d have a hard time getting a permit to cut the tree.
The last ad I can find for the Capitan in the Dallas Morning News archives is for Saturday, January 1, 1955; a double feature, “Betrayed” with Clark Gable and Lana Turner, and “Rancho Notorious” with Marlene Dietrich. No article announces the closing. The ads simply disappear after this date.
BTW, Interstate did NOT open the Capitol, as it says in the introductory remarks, above; although, IIRC, the company did acquire it and the adjacent Rialto (Old Mill) at some time in the lives of these respective theatres.
$50,000 doesn’t sound like a whole lot, esp.compared to the $2,000,000 price tags for the Majestic and Palace, both built the previous year – even considering they were each about 2-3 times the seating capacity.
After carefully studying the Historical Aerials overhead shots from 1957 and 1958, noticing particularly the configuration of the screen tower and its positioning on the property, its “wings” (adjacent fences meant to shield patrons' eyes from ambient light) and the location of the boxoffice, I have concluded that the photo I posted of this theatre…ain’t it.
What theatre the one in the photo might be, I have no idea.
Hampton Road was never a two-screen drive-in.
Address is still wrong – Apollo’s south screen stood very close to where the single screen tower of the old Garland Rd. Drive-In stood – the address for that theatre (3159 Garland Rd. – at the southern apex of the triangle formed by Garland, Shiloh, and W. Kingsley) is correct; the Apollo’s north screen was way up on Kingsley.
“Chuck 1231 confirms Bob’s statement that this was originally the East Pike (see Casa View Drive-In page), so there needs to be an AKA added above the title, don’t you think?” – I have now found evidence that refutes this claim, namely an announcement in a 1950 Dallas newspaper (link posted below). Samuell Blvd. itself was at one time referred to as the East Pike because it was the old route of US Hwy 67 into Dallas from the east. It’s possible Chuck’s source confuses the theatre with the road. Here’s the link. Scroll about a third of the way down the page until you see an article headlined “New Drive-In To Open Tuesday.”
http://bacougars66.com/index.php/dallas-at-the-drive-in